


Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos

by izumi2



Series: Together Everyone Achieves More (Civil War Team Iron Man) [1]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: BAMF Tony Stark, Civil War Team Iron Man, Extremis!Tony Stark, I'm not sorry, If MCU wanted me to think otherwise, Loki is Hela's kid, Mild Mentions of Abusive Relationships, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, They should have dressed Hela differently, nothing graphic i promise
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-29
Updated: 2019-01-03
Packaged: 2019-09-29 16:55:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 8,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17207273
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/izumi2/pseuds/izumi2
Summary: The Avengers...Coming together is a beginning;Keeping together is progress;Working together is success.In a way, Thanos knows that better than anyone.~*~Civil War Team Iron ManModerated





	1. Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know if I will manage to complete this work, althou originally planned to be a one-shot, I realised that the idea was too complex for it.
> 
> I will try to keep it short and focused so fingers crossed.

Tony wasn’t panting. The tests kinda confirmed that if he did pant then it was serious business. His new biology lacked enough organic material that the level of oxygen no longer hindered him, well, at least not as much as it used to… nowhere near as much as it would any other normal human. Helen even wanted to see how he would deal in aquatic environment next.

As it is, Tony kept his pace slow for Pepper to keep up.

“Daily runs, Tony. Healthy routine.” She smiled at him, knowing that he no longer needed to worry about his physical health – not that he ever did all that much – anymore so he was there to spend time with her.

“I’m all about health nowadays, Pep.” He promised in return with a wink, an inner joke about his complete and literal new lease on life.

They got back to the penthouse. After the disaster that was the Avengers, they both heeded the therapist’s suggestion of separating work or Iron Man related things from personal life. Tony bought the Tower back and remodeled the whole thing into what it was originally: offices and labs.

He also got a penthouse that had Pepper’s name on the lease.

After showering and having something light to eat, they were revising old SI projects that were seeing the light of the day again now that he actually had time for it.

Pressing a kiss to his temple, Pepper put a cup of coffee on the table and turned on the TV.

It was… amazing his new daily life. Not that the free time increased all that much. What the former Avengers never seemed to realize is that Tony didn’t exactly fit the bill for ‘lazy billionaire’, he actually worried and angered a lot of SI’s directors and investors with how much time he would spend on Avengers instead of SI.

The free time didn’t increase, but he now had more or less regular sleep hours and time to make a daily run with Pepper…

For the first time in ten years, Tony’s stress levels were pretty low.

He should have known better than to tempt the universe.

~*~

“Mom?” Hope ran to hug her mother, “I missed you so much! No more last minute trips, ok?”

“Ok, I promise.”

Janet turned to Ava who as blinking and blurring and stabilized her as well.

The original Wasp smiled at her husband and daughter, more than thirty years and finally together again… finally… she gasped and howled in pain doubling over.

“Janet!”

“Mom!”

But a second later, Hank was also yelling as a pain he never felt before ripped him in two, or at least it felt like it.

~*~

Tony and Pepper kissed briefly before she got into the car to take her to the airport.

Not even seconds later, Tony was on the ground, shouting as he held his chest.

Pepper saw him falling from the rearview mirror and screeched for Happy to turn around.

~*~

Thor smiled as the last of the Asgardians embarked the ship that would take them to Earth. The good Dr. Banner took a deep breath and sat down heavily, his shoulders slumping from exhaustion.

“Earth it is.”

“Earth it is.” Banner repeated back at him with a tired smile.

Thor helped him up and they were walking towards the cockpit when it hit them.

Bruce’s yell turned into pained roar as he explosively changed.

Thor kept his feet for a while longer but he too succumbed to the agony. He could barely hear Loki’s voice asking him what was wrong.

~*~

Simultaneously, five beams of light broke through clouds, the skies, being visible to satellites and people thousands of miles away.

~*~

 ** _He_** raised his head. He hummed to himself in thought at the new development.

“If anything, I suppose he was right about this. So many possibilities that I’m actually looking forward to see where this goes.”


	2. Inevitabilis

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In Latin, "unavoidable"

The trip was supposed to take a few weeks. But Loki and Heimdall hastened the pace immediately after Thor and Bruce went down.

“I know very little of human physiology, especially one that can turn into a beast like the Hulk and as far as I can sense and see, Thor is physically sound, I don’t **_know_** why he does not wake.”

In any other circumstance, many would accuse Loki of lying but Loki was proud in his magik and he would also never allow himself the show of weakness his frustration was causing.

Not knowing something, being ignorant was something inexcusable to someone like Loki that prided himself of his knowledge.

“Do the hyper-jump.”

“Sir, we barely have the fuel for the oxygen filters to work.” One of the guards protested.

Loki spun around with his teeth bared, “We are not some miserable humans! This ship is filled with Asgardians and other races that can match Asgardians, we can survive for a few days without air if the need so arises! But as much as it grates me to admit, I don’t know what is happening with Thor! This ship is barely equipped with healing facilities, perhaps the nearest habitable planet will have more luck, and the nearest habitable planet is Midgard that is still **_days_** if not weeks away with the snail like pace this thing is going, so if you still want to have a king without Frost Giant’s blood and yet with legitimate ties to the throne, **_do the hyper-jump!_** ”

As the guard scurried away, Heimdall leveled his golden eyes in Loki’s.

“You were always too sharp for your own good.”

The God of Mischief rolled his eyes, “Gungnir was always shrouded in mystery… a tale for those that do not care to go further. It was one of my studies as Odin. Not very unlike Mjolnir, Odin’s spear was also spelled to only allow blood to wield it, perhaps to ensure that the line will always hold the crown… so why did it work with me? When Hela’s existence was revealed and… by **_looking_** at her, it was no hard task to make the right conclusion.”

Heimdall grunted, smiling despite himself.

“You do realize that this makes Thor your uncle, correct?”

 ** _That_** got a reaction, Heimdall had a blade to his throat, but no pressure behind it.

“No mention of that shall be made again. I have no doubt that Thor himself will not be pleased with it.”

~*~

_“Aliens, gods and monsters. The new of the week is a very strange occurrence that happened with Anthony Edward Stark PhD, Henry “Hank” Pym PhD and his… recently returned wife, Ms. Janet van Dyne. Tapes recorded that all three collapsed at the exact same time in July, 5 2018, seconds later a… light emanated from their bodies and they went still. No one could have missed such an event, news stations from Canada and Mexico caught the beams of light many miles away and that extended, according to satellites, to the atmosphere. As such, all three have been interned in the same hospital for monitoring, the location is undisclosed as a safety measure.”_

“Was this truly a good idea?” not even in a million of years, Hope thought she would be rubbing shoulders with Stark Industries’ CEO.

Well… Pepper Potts wasn’t exactly physically close enough to rub shoulders with her, the other woman made it very clear that Leipzig was not forgiven and thanks to Scott and the 2014 Info Dump, Potts and the world knew where the Ant Man tech came from.

Hope couldn’t blame the woman, Hank was famous for his disdain in all things Stark and the only reason he never said the word ‘Thief’ is because lawsuit for libel was still very much a thing, still, if it was to go by Potts’ expression when she introduced herself, the woman – and probably Stark too – barely knew that they existed.

And yet, the second meeting was a lot frostier, so Potts made her homework and wasn’t very impressed, considering that Scott took a too close a look in the Iron Man tech during Leipzig where he literally entered Stark’s suit when it was Hank that was always – in the discretion of his own house – shouting about Stark thieves, Hope **_really_** couldn’t blame the woman for keeping her at arm’s length, be it metaphorically or literally.

Things didn’t improve when Scott showed up in the hospital after his house arrest ended. **_House arrest_** for trashing millions of dollars in Germany without a fricking passport, if Scott wasn’t the luckiest bastard in the planet, Hope didn’t know who was.

“I don’t know, but it was what Kimball suggested and Tony didn’t personally hire him because of a scintillating personality.”

Hope nodded, SI’s PR was straight to the point and didn’t tolerated little jokes that could undermine his work.

While Hope sighed at the TV, Potts never once averted her eyes from the figure on the other side of the glass walls.

 Stark was laying connected to as many monitors as her parents, the weird light had subsided hours ago, but looking closer, it was…off…her parents too.

The current Wasp couldn’t exactly put her finger on it, but…

The doors to their left opened to reveal Colonel James Rhodes and Happy Hogan and Hope now couldn’t take her eyes off the prosthetics.

“What happened?” Rhodes went straight to Potts that even then refused to let go of the inscrutable mask she was wearing since day one.

“He collapsed in the middle of the sidewalk and then… I think you saw what happened next, new stations are reprising it like Keeping up with the Kardashians.”

“God, Tony…alien?”

“I don’t know, perhaps, I know it’s not… something unique to Tony,” Potts nodded to the other rooms in the private floor where Hank and her mom were also resting, “but aside from that I have nothing, the doctors are just as lost, as far as they can tell, there is still brain function and no reason why…no one knows why they won’t woke up.”

They were silent for a few minutes. Potts didn’t seem inclined to introduce either Hope or Scott to Rhodes and Rhodes didn’t even seem to notice them there.

“I kinda want to blame the Avengers for it… at least Fury.” Rhodes broke the silent.

“How?” Potts wasn’t disagreeing and Hope tried not to move a muscle and prayed that Scott kept to himself and the vow of silence he apparently took once stepping foot inside.

“As Iron Man, the most that happened to either of us were terrorists and… AIM, then the Avengers and suddenly aliens are raining on us. None of this crazy was a thing before Fury formed his… super band. Oh, god, at these times it’s easy to see why Tony called them that.”

By Hogan’s expression, the bodyguard also agreed when his hand went to his earpiece and he turned away to hear whatever it was.

“Ms. Potts, Colonel Rhodes? There are some… news.”

“What is it, Happy?”

“Let’s just say it’s a good thing Boss is out cold or else this would have ruined his week because of his insistence in fixing things personally…”

“What happened?” Rhodes repeated the question.

“…a giant ass ship just landed in Central Park and…Loki is on Earth… with hundreds of Asgardians… and a few dozen of other aliens.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _“You do realize that this makes Thor your uncle, correct?”_ \-- considering the very heavy headcanon of "Loki is Hela's kid"... and MCU!Hela being Odin's daughter... Thor is Loki's uncle... *giggles*
> 
> I puporsefully didn't bring much attention to Hope and her thoughts besides observing because as sympathetic as I am toward her (and Hank's) plans to bring Janet back... I'm sorry, but I didn't exactly see much... heroics in Ant Man and the Wasp. At most, I can see Scott in that role because he didn't **need** to get involved. Actually, in his place, I would slam the door on their face. Even if, to be fair, both parties would be right to slam the door on each other's faces...


	3. By Desponia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Greek Goddess of Mystery

“Greetings, you must be Lady Potts, Thor has mentioned you, I am Loki.” Pepper merely raised an eyebrow at the, admittedly, charming prince.

If it wasn’t for the tightening in his eyes and the forced smile… and the fact that this was the man that attacked New York six years previous, Pepper could be fooled… **_could_** because she also doubted that “Thor mentioned her” in anything but in passing perhaps once if that.

“Rescue,” she introduced herself, “I am representing Iron Man, these are the Sorcerer Supreme and War Machine, I will ask you to raise your hands and not to do any sudden movements, in that order. Your… vehicle hardly has the permission to… land.”

“Yes. Unfortunately, my vehicle also holds a great number of people that are in need of healers, including and especially the B…Banner and Thor.”

Loki suppressed his mild surprise at the lack of concern and had to hold back the exasperated sigh that was threatening to come out.

Has Thor, on the ridiculously small amount of time he spent on Midgard, already destroyed sacred monuments or offended fathers? Those are just the most likely transgressions based on personal experience, still, Loki made sure to mention Banner first and the results were the same: bland looks.

He was the Silvertongue, he knew a lie when he saw one and those people cared for Thor and Banner in the same way, to use an Earth saying, a cat person would care for a dog in danger. Not indifferent, but not exactly like a friend would.

Loki would bet on Thor offending someone with his warmongering ways but that doesn’t explain Banner. The most likely case is that they were crossed with both for different reasons.

This wasn’t how Loki planned this to go. Not that he had much time to make one, he was half-way counting on Thor being worshipped on Earth as much as he was on Asgard, Midgardians thought them as Gods and that went farther than heroes, right?

“I already contacted local paramedics to take Dr. Banner and Mr…Odinson to the Stark Compound, it’s perfectly equipped to handle Enhanceds and thanks to previous records I believe the team of doctors will have everything they need.” War Machine was the one to speak, he wore a suit or armor similar to the one Man of Iron wore back then, his was heavier and darker.

The opposite of the one Lady Potts was donning that was silver and purple and light.

“Are there any other injured?” Potts asked to which Loki shook his head.

“The rest of the Asgardians have some scraps and cuts, but even the children are already close to fully healed. Thor and Banner are the only ones that have yet to wake.”

Loki could see the question in her eyes but Potts just pursed her lips and nodded to War Machine, “Since Thor is indisposed I take that you’ll speak on your people’s behalf?”

“I… yes, I suppose that this is correct.”

“You understand that considering your history with Earth some precautions need to be taken?”

“I expected as much.”

“I think you already know Dr. Strange, then.”

Grimacing at the slightly amused but still stern looking sorcerer, Loki nodded, “We’ve met.”

“Good, he will be your escort.”

Strange motioned to be followed where more people with the same clothing style were waiting alongside people in business suits, not all that unlike what Loki himself would choose to wear.

“I thought we had an understanding and I also thought that you were…indifferent towards Earth.”

“Lack of choice.”

Strange raised an eyebrow, “They will interrogate you while Thor and Dr. Banner receive medical treatment but you will also be accompanied by either myself or Wong, always.” The Chinese man didn’t move a muscle.

“I expected as much.” Loki repeated.

A gasp caught all of their attentions. They turned to see Potts and War Machine staring at Thor and Banner. They were still lightly… shining for lack of a better term, nowhere near the blinding beam it was before, but still enough to be unsettling and clearly unnatural.

Something in Strange – the closest one to Loki – made him focus on his expression. It was…shock and concern… but not surprise.

Loki glanced back as Potts and Rhodes, was it? exchanged stares, and he discreetly looked around.

It was Loki’s eyebrow that was raised this time, “The Man of Iron suffers the same plight.”

“What makes you say that?” Loki was impressed at Strange’s mask, but…

“Your reaction, **_their_** reaction,” he nodded to the two armored warriors that closely followed his brother and the Beast, “and the absence of the Man of Iron that, despite the very short time we’ve known each other, I noticed has the strange habit of being personally involved when anyone else would have send a servant of far lower rank for the task.”

Stephen suppressed a snort, _yeah, that’s Tony alright_.

He was by far the strongest Sorcerer of Kamar Taj in raw power even if by far the most inexperienced, that’s why Wong was here and even knowing that Loki was far too great a threat for anyone else to handle and the only reason it was him it’s because Stephen **_is_** the Sorcerer Supreme, Stephen wasn’t able to help himself, the former surgeon concealed a smirk, “The same could be said about me then.”

The Sorcerer had to hide another smirk at the deadpan he got for his troubles.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If there is another character (besides Tony) that suffers the "To show other character's skill/smarts, we will make X dumb in comparison" is Loki.
> 
> Ragnarok was one huge WTH in almost all scenes that Loki was (if anyone gets started with that statue and plays and whatever I will never stop) and STILL showed a redemption Arc that was so much better than Wanda's that I still don't get what basis I was supposed to hallucinate to consider Maximoff a hero that made imaginary amends.
> 
> Unless of course they were saying that in a land of jocks anyone that spent five minutes dedicating themselves for academic matters was already an Einstein but still dumber than most other species that have minimum respect for smarts, in which case, go to hell, MCU, ever heard of middle ground?


	4. Clotho

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Spinner: she spins the thread of life. She sings the things that ARE.

“Refugee?”

“They are literally just that, councilman.”

“No hope of ever rebuilding then?” the question was directed at Loki who was still reeling at the number of people whose decision weighted just as much in grating any planetary request.

Back in Asgard, Odin’s word is law and final.

“No, councilman. The whole planet was destroyed, not merely laying waste to the habitat but completely destroyed, only nothingness remain where Asgard once was.”

“Because of your daughter?”

“I beg your pardon?”

“Hela? The one who presides over Hel?”

A quick look told Loki that the man came from a place called Norway, Loki remained silent for a few seconds before answering, ““Reigning over Helheim” aren’t the words I would choose. And Hela is not my daughter, I have no children.”

“What about Sleipnir and Jormungandr? And Fenrir?”

“What about them?”

“Are they not your children?”

A few more moments of silence where Loki was honestly at loss before slowly replying, “I believe…that… some of your… tales…are not accurate.”

And the man from Norway looked very disappointed too.

 _This is going to take a while_.

“Then who is Hela?”

“I recently discovered her to be my mother with the Jötunn Laufey.”

“Isn’t Laufey your mother?”

_This is definitely going to take a while._

~*~

“What the hell is going on?” Rhodey stared as Thor and Banner were settled besides Tony, Pym and van Dyne.

“Perhaps now we can find out more.” The younger van Dyne commented and Rhodes blinked, realizing that they weren’t introduced but having not patience for manners right now.

“I…don’t know how much help it would be, aside from your father all of them have different and altered physiology.”

“I understand, but perhaps we can isolate some of it, not my mother, but the Avengers have access to past exams, right?”

“Helen Cho used to but after… she just doesn’t want anything to do with the Avengers.”

“I think this is an emergency, whatever personal problems Dr. Cho has with either of them, this is…I’m willing to say that Thor and Dr. Banner went down at the exact same time my parents and Dr. Stark did and there is nothing connecting them.”

Rhodes kept silent for a few moments before sighing and meeting her eyes, Hope was taken back at the serious look on his face, “Dr. Cho is not…she doesn’t feel safe with the Avengers, more specifically, she doesn’t feel safe with Thor anymore.”

“What? Why?”

“It’s hardly a secret even thou I’m pretty sure Tony won’t be happy with me for this. When Ultron happened, Thor blamed Tony, right or wrong, it’s how he **_showed_** his displeasure that scared Helen. He walked forward and grabbed Tony by the throat, suspending his entire weight.”

Hope gulped back her gasp but she could feel her eyes wide, “Thor strangled him?”

“Yes. Tony is the only Avenger that is not officially trained in formal combat, he knows his way around any weapon due to experience and I have been teaching him some basics but that’s it and Thor proved that he prefers brawl over brain. Out of the armor and Thor didn’t even hesitate…Helen was there and witnessed the whole thing, she is scared. It didn’t help that by the end of it Rogers and Romanoff invited Maximoff along Pollyanna Style.”

“Wait, wait! What does… uh…Scarlet Witch has to do with this?”

“It was kept out from the public but the Maximoff twins actually helped Ultron, why? Don’t ask me, if anyone questioned her before making her an Avenger they didn’t tell me anything but while working with or for Ultron, I don’t even know, they attacked Dr. Cho and her team in Seoul. Two of her colleagues died and…Dr. Cho doesn’t want to come back to America.”

“Oh, my god! And they… she just became an Avengers? Just like that?”

“I have no idea how the recruitment happens or used to happen, she just showed up with Rogers alongside Vision and that was it. The point is: Helen won’t want to come and since we have no idea what this is, it doesn’t necessarily constitute an emergency that literally no one else can handle. Besides, Helen is not all that happy with Tony for the same reason.”

“What?”

“Rogers and Romanoff didn’t say a word about the Maximoffs helping Ultron and Tony left it at that, Helen was already scared of Thor and now she has a beef with Rogers and Romanoff. Tony has always protected his employees. When SI went into free fall in 2008 after he shut down the weapons division, he put a lot of his own money into SI to avoid laying people off, Helen knew that. She knew that agreeing to work with SI, she wouldn’t be stabbed in the back, her work with the Cradle was revolutionizing, and anyone would want a piece of that. So when Tony not only looked the other way but also helped Maximoff get a work visa… well…”

“She felt that Stark betrayed her…”

“If not betrayed, then left her out the cold, feeling completely unsafe.”

“Why did he…”

“I don’t know. I think we all got too used in making Rogers’ plans into reality. What the…”

Hope followed his gaze and released a breath, “What is this?”

All five were no longer shining but…

Thor was getting… taller, his feet beginning to dangle from the end of the gurney, his hair was becoming a lighter blonde, his muscles were bulging.

Bruce, Tony and Pym also got taller, Rhodes and Hope could see their feet moving to the end of the gurney but while that was happening, Janet got smaller. If she was 5’7, she was now closer to 5’2. And all four… the threads of grey hair Bruce and Tony had were now dark.

Bruce used to have dark brown, almost black hair but now it was a chocolaty tone while Tony had an earthy brown hair it was now very dark, borderline black.

But the change was even more drastic in Janet and Hank. From the memories Hope has, she knew her mother had brown hair, it was now almost black, Hank used to be a brunet and was now blonde, almost as light a tone as Thor’s was right now.

They were…

“They’re getting younger…” Hope didn’t know who uttered the words but they were undeniable.

Wrinkles and lines were disappearing, their features changing too, becoming smoother.

When it all ended, all of them looked to be in their thirties.

Something, out of nowhere, entered Hope’s mind and she snapped her mouth shut and frowned, “Shouldn’t the meeting with the UN be finished by now?”

“I…made sure that the rep from Norway would be present.”

“So…?”

“So that the guy is a huge geek for mythology, he used to be a historian, he knows all the tales by heart.”

“So…?”

Rhodey smiled, gleefully malicious which made Hope want to take a step away, not that she did mind you, “So that Loki is probably wishing he was blasted with Asgard.” He sighed, deeply and dramatically, “…Tony is now taller than me… that is so wrong.” That made Hope snort.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There are plenty of theories for why Helen is not around... ever again... can anyone really tell me that she would be perfectly ok to coexist with Thor after he casually lifted a supposed teammate by the throat? This is a civilian woman that is not at all used to it. And inviting Maximoff to be an Avenger after Seoul... yeah, Helen would be so happy with that.
> 
> Rhodey and Hope are basically in denial, the crazy that happened before their eyes was breaking their minds, so...
> 
> Can anyone already tell where I'm going with this? *smiles*


	5. Lachesis

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Alotter: measures the thread of life. She sings the things that WERE.

Tony was dreaming. The kind of dreams that you know are dreams. But this one was weird, full of flashes and sounds, none connecting with the other, like one of those mind numbing presentations in SI, but so fast that Tony was unable to recognize much even despite his eidetic memory.

A man in a lab coat.

A woman that excitedly grabbed his arm.

A man that represented challenge.

There was laugher but also tears and screams.

Crowds…cheering… screaming…falling…crying…dying.

Flashes, this time only colors.

A lot of green.

Also red and purple.

And then yellow…

But mostly white.

And then it all slowed down, still fast but recognizable. They were memories and Tony knew that they were his but there was detachment, like it all happened with someone else.

They didn’t affect him on a personal level. They still inspired sympathy and empathy but that was all.

There were struggles and pain but surprisingly little guilt. Tony was used to guilt.

His eyelids fluttered.

~*~

“On the bright side: Boss is gonna love this, he was always saying that after forty he no longer aged.” Even thou it was meant as a joke, Happy looked anything but his namesake.

“I called Helen, she wasn’t… agreeable but I assured her that Thor wouldn’t be one of her patients and that this time who would be dealing with anyone that hurt an SI employee would deal with **_me_**. She knows that Tony listens to me. I will not let go anymore.” Pepper gripped her arms even tighter, “Her ETA is half an hour.”

“What did Strange say?”

“Nothing that we didn’t already know before leaving to get Loki.” Pepper shook her head.

“Which was?”

“He… went on a trance, levitated, his hands formed shining mandalas and when it was over he looked pretty worried and said he needed to consult with the other sorcerers. Before leaving, he said that all five of them had traces of the Infinity Stones’ influence.”

“And we already knew that?”

“I mean… Tony and Banner studied the Tesseract and the Mind Stone, **_Howard_** studied the Tesseract. Thor has had contact with the Tesseract, the Mind Stone, that… Aether that Dr. Foster commented and who knows what else. I need to talk to Ms. van Dyne about her parents in her next visit thou.”

“… and it’s **_not_** cause of concern?”

The redhead sighed, “No more than usual I think.”

~*~

They were walking towards the car and talking under their breath.

“I know what I felt, Wong.” Stephen calmly watched as the more experienced sorcerer carefully controlled his breath.

“I know and I don’t disbelieve you.”

“But?”

“Denial is a very powerful tool. The possibility is too terrifying, the repercussions…Do you understand what this means to us? We failed, Stephen.”

“We didn’t fail!”

Wong’s usual bland expression didn’t falter, but his dark eyes held all the doom Stephen was feeling, he pulled the handle of the nondescript car, “But we will.”

Stephen followed him inside and addressed the other occupant, “You’ll be taken to your brother, Mr. Loki, the Stark Compound has better facilities and, most importantly, it’s removed from the public should a fight breakout.”

“I assure you, I have no intention of starting a fight.”

“Good.”

Stephen purposefully waited until they were already in the compound and the guards helped escort Loki towards the cell Stephen put spells of containment to address Loki again, “Before we let you see your brother, I should inform you. Yes, you were right: Tony Stark seems to have the same affliction Banner and Thor… that they have. While you were being interrogated, your brother and the others went through physical changes. In particular your brother… got taller, heavier, his hair became lighter blonde and that was what we could observe. We have no idea of the mental effects.”

“I expected as much.”

“Excuse me?”

“I did my own… exams, you say? On the way to Earth, from the little I could ascertain: Metaphysical transformation… completely spontaneously, I confess that I was scared, these kinds of happenings hardly mean good tidings and also I never saw anything like it before.”

“Aren’t you thousands of years old?” Stephen half-mocked, suspicious but needing to hear more, Wong beside him was silent which basically means he was with Stephen on this.

Even if Loki was lying, literally anything was better than the nothing they had.

“I’m twelve-hundred-and-seventy actually, still can’t be called ‘thousands’.” Loki sassed back before sobering, “It was old energy, I don’t even know if we can call it magic.”

“The Infinity Stones.” Stephen was sure but felt doubt when Loki shook his head.

“I would be able to feel if it was. You’re hardly the most experienced one about them, Doctor, but I congratulate you for recognizing that the Stones are not mystical.”

“They **_were_** under the effects of one – I could clearly feel the Time Stone.”

“Yes,” Loki agreed much to their surprise which he noticed, the half-Asgardian rolled his eyes, “they had the Stones’ energy on them and please note that I say, “Stones”, plural and I could only recognize the ones I held in my hands, meaning that there are others as well, but it wasn’t… it **_isn’t_** what is causing all this. The light, the physical changes… the Stones are involved but there is also something else.”

“And you have no idea what it is.”

“I never said that I have no ideas… to be fair, not at first, not when I first landed my eyes on Thor and Banner but the ideas that I do have are a little too drastic.”

“More drastic than Infinity Stones?”

Loki rolled his eyes again and smirked, slowly and predatorily. And yet, Stephen could see the hesitance, the anxiety in his green eyes at the same time that while it wasn’t fear, not exactly, it was dangerously close to it.

“Oh, Doctor, your primitive knowledge is not primitive enough and not advanced enough at the same time, an interesting paradox for sure. As it is, it’s only conjecture, I have tales and guesses. It’s old… very old… and not something that anyone minimally sane would get involved with, so I suppose that the title of Mad Titan is fitting.” Loki’s smirk faltered, just minimally but enough for Wong and Stephen to spot it, “After all, **_someone_** had to **_create_** the Infinity Stones.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And now? *smiles*
> 
> Does anyone know what is going on?
> 
> ~*~
> 
> !!!!!Happy New Year!!!!!!


	6. Atropos

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Unturning: inevitable. She sings the things that ARE TO BE.

It seemed that Loki took a vow of silence after he said his bit and insisted on only speaking towards the ones afflicted with the so called metaphysical transformation.

“How do you even know that they’ll wake at all?” Stephen gritted out in frustration. Loki just leveled him a bland look but kept his silence.

Strange and Wong looked far and deep into metaphysical transformation but most of it sounded like fairy tales or practices that Wong would be hard pressed to find anyone crazy enough to try.

“Trying to turn yourself into inanimate objects, sure, in theory, it’s possible… and the you’ll try to turn yourself back again but wait…inanimate objects don’t respond like organic matter, does it?”

They were calmly walking towards the med bay that was repurposed to monitor the five… shining and newly-turned thirty something years old, “Fuck.”

And of course, Stark’s bed was empty.

~*~

Tony’s eyes were fluttering. Left, right, above, below.

Too many sounds, too many images.

 He got the source. The room… the central room. Too much.

“I’m sorry.” Why was he apologizing? It was important… it was…

_“Boss?”_

Friday. His Friday Girl.

“I’m sorry, go, go!”

Tony’s head pounded by he felt it, it was safe now.

He put the right commands in and it turned off the power and he could breathe again. His head finally his own.

“Tony!”

He turned.

A pretty redhead was staring at him in concern and panic. _Pepper_. His mind supplied. But she looked different. Older and taller than he remembered.

No, Tony still remembered this Pepper. He asked her to marry him…he gave her the shrapnel in his chest in a ruby necklace and he made her CEO of SI… why did he made her CEO?

“Tony?”

“P-Pepper…”

“You need to come back to the med bay.”

 _“Ms. Potts?”_ Friday… Friday’s voice came from the hallway.

“Yes, Fri?”

“The others are awake.”

~*~

Thor in Thor fashion went off the second he woke up. Which would be interesting since he was still in the rather revealing hospital aprons.

Bruce Hulked out and was in the Playroom, Pepper barely glanced how he barely managed to reach the reinforced room before turning green. She was too busy trying not to trip in her high heels in her haste to get to Tony.

As for Hank…

“Janet! Jan! Answer me!”

“Dad, please! Calm down!” But Hope didn’t seem to be able to get Hank’s attention.

The blond man – and that was still boggling Hope’s mind – was still trying to get some reaction from a catatonic Janet van Dyne, who was still staring into nothing.

And it was that scene that Pepper took Tony to.

More flashes. More images and sounds.

“Hank? Janet?” it was out before Tony processed what he was saying.

Janet didn’t answer but Tony’s voice snapped Hank back in a way that Hope’s didn’t.

“…I…Star…Tony?”

“Hi…?”

A different version… an older, shorter man, already grey with age. A blink and he was gone.

“Thor and Bruce?” Hank looked around.

“I don’t know.”

Pepper bit her lip, “Ba… Dr. Banner is in the Hulk Room and Thor took off.”

Tony rolled his eyes… his blue eyes, Pepper realized with a pang, “Thor will be Thor.”

“I guess that this is comforting.” Hope thought that the smile Hank sent Stark was more unnerving than the blond hair.

Stark didn’t answer the smile, his expression still bland. He glanced towards her mom for a second before nodding and leaving the room, dutifully going back to his own gurney.

“For now just rest, Dr. Cho and Dr. Strange will be here shortly.”

Tony frowned, “Strange… Stephen… who is Dr. Cho?”

Pepper bit her lip again, “She is a…a medic, specializes in genetics. She… invented the Cradle, it produces non organic tissue, I don’t know the tech behind it but you said that the tissue won’t be recognized as a foreign body by the organism.”

Tony raised his eyebrows, “If the production is cellular level… theoretically she could create entire functional organs.”

Pepper smiled, “You said that. Fri?” but the A.I didn’t answer, she frowned, “Fri?”

“I think I shut her down from the rooms. But she can still answer in the hallways.”

“Why would you do that?” Pepper glanced back in concern, she knew that Tony could now control tech what if…

“Relax. It was… very loud and in my head. This place is all tech.” instead of disgruntled like other people would be in his place, Tony looked around in excitement.

Pepper gave a small smile at that before grimacing, “I don’t know anyone that would be able to help…but I guess a former neurosurgeon is a start.”

Tony smiled at her. It was the same smile, surrounded by no wrinkles. A comfort, even if a small one, “You guess right.”

“Tony… you’ve… been unconscious for almost three days.”

“I know.”

“And there are…you changed… physically.”

“I know.”

“Do you know what is going on?” she was beginning to assume.

“I have some ideas. For now, I want to wait for Janet to get better, Thor to come back and for Bruce to calm down to compare a few notes but I am fairly certain that this happened before.”

“Tony, I’ve known you for almost twenty years and…”

“I don’t mean it like that. I don’t remember, not yet, and please don’t look at me like I’m crazy, but this is not the first time we have this conversation.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Someone has been messing with time, that’s why Strange needs to be present for that conversation, and this isn’t their first try. But this feels different. It wasn’t like this. We would usually just wake up one day and find these new memories, we know that they are ours but thankfully it was like watching a movie, no deep feelings, just the knowledge. This granted us the ultimate hindsight and no feelings to compromise us. And that part is still the same, however the physical changes have never been this drastic and…we were all if not completely, already past our prime. Thor doesn’t count the guy can live eons but the rest of us? Bruce and I were nearing fifty and Janet and Hank were in their late sixties. That never happened before and if my theory is correct…”

“Tony, I don’t think I understand.”

“… Pep… what year was I born?”

“1970.”

“How old was I when my parents died?”

“Seventeen.”

“What year did they die?”

“1991… what? Wait…” Pepper looked at him and she was horrified. Tony was calm but still worried.

“I met Rhodey in our first year in MIT… what is the difference in age between us?”

“Rhodey is six years older than you.”

“How old am I?”

“You are forty-eight.”

“How old is Rhodey?”

“He is fifty-one. Oh, my god, Tony!”

The inventor nodded and repeated, “Someone has been messing with time. But it was never this fractured… it was never this inconstant… I think that they not only messed with time, they messed with reality.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The last bit was inspired by another fic but for the life of me I can't find it T.T
> 
> So... what now, my dear readers? LOL.
> 
> Any guesses?


	7. Prelude to a Foundation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A novel by Isaac Asimov. The hero, Hari Seldon, invented psychohistory - a fictional science which combines history, sociology, and mathematical statistics to make general predictions about the future behavior of very large groups of people.
> 
> Psychohistory depends on the idea that, while one cannot foresee the actions of a particular individual, the laws of statistics as applied to large groups of people could predict the general flow of future events.

“What do we know?” Hank asked the second Thor – somber and silent – returned, still in the hospital apron much to the others’ muted amusement. But the demigod didn’t seem to overly care about his lack of clothes, not that he ever did.

“Right **_now_** not much, you remember the other times, we slowly remember what we were doing before everything changed.” Janet mutters to herself, her voice hoarse and still not meeting anyone’s eyes.

““Again” you mean and I think we all agreed that whatever happened to cause this last change is not the same as the other times. Oh, damn.” Bruce complained at the now too small lab coat.

_“If I may, Boss, the clothes bought have just been delivered.”_

“Perfect timing, thanks, Fri.” Tony excused himself to get the decently sized box and briefly checking the size before giving some to Thor and Bruce.

Hope took care of Hank and Janet and Tony felt for the woman. Neither of her parents was comfortable around their current daughter and it was affecting her. The billionaire briefly recalled Nadia – the barely twenty young woman trained like Natasha and with Hank’s brains. Russian for “Hope” and he didn’t know whether to snort or grimace.

As it was, Hope, Scott, Pepper, Rhodey, Vision – and Tony did a double take at the Mind Stone in his forehead – and Happy were on the other end of the table. Stephen was more or less in the middle, clearly expected to contribute when the conversation leads to it.

After a brief explanation about Tony’s theory and for the others to compare notes that he wasn’t the only whose timeline didn’t make sense. The five took turns to explain that they lost count of how many times **_this_** happened. Every single time, they tried to find the source, but “the villain of the week” always got in the way before they could stop this madness.

“We are reasonably certain it is Thanos causing this.” Tony said.

“He is known as The Mad Titan.” Thor’s booming voice was as dark as his eyes.

“Who is that?” Pepper glanced at Tony.

“He is a genocidal maniac that thinks that since natural resources are finite, cutting the population of every planet in half will save the remaining half from hunger and misery.”

“Ok, that’s…” Happy shook his head.

“Crazy? Insane? Control freak from hell? Go nuts with the dictionary, we already called him every name under the sun.” Tony reclined back, rubbing his eyes tiredly.

Janet explained, “Usually he would go from planet to planet, his armies kill half of the population and that would be it. But even a Titan like him, whose life span is thousands of years, wouldn’t be able to complete the task of going to every planet with sentient life form to cut it in a half. Realizing this, he began to seek the Infinity Stones.”

“In every single timeline, we would face him and defeat him, at a great cost sometimes,” Hank’s brief look towards Janet made Hope take in a shuddering breath, “right after, there would be a reboot. It has to be connected.”

“The most obvious answer is not always the right one.” Bruce’s gruff voice shocked the people in the room.

Where were the mild manners and the shy demeanor? But none of the… time travelers…? Looked surprise, even with Hank shooting a glare towards the other scientist.

“But you don’t disagree with Tony?”

“Tony said we can be “reasonably certain” which I can agree. Going with the premise that it is Thanos, disregarding all other possible venues is foolish. Especially considering that in this... reboot,” Bruce rolled his eyes, “Thanos didn’t **_have_** the Time Stone and the timeline was restarted either way. How do you explain **_that_**?”

“What is the Time Stone, the Infinity Stones?” Rhodey interrupted.

“There are Six Infinity Stones. They were created in the beginning of the universe, Gems of unlimited power that represents the six primary elements: Power, Time, Mind, Reality, Space, Soul. Thanos is after them, has always been after them and no matter what, we seem unable to stop him before he arrives on Earth looking for the others.”

“Wait, those things are here on Earth?” Rhodey zeroed on what that meant to them.

“That’s how we first confronted Thanos. Regardless of the first times that we didn’t know what he wanted, he was still a giant ass Homer-bearded lunatic that was killing everyone that got in his way trying to find the Stones. So we fought and we won.” Tony shrugged.

“Homer-bearded?” Strange deadpanned.

“… you gotta see him to understand.”

“Whatever the case,” Hank rolled his eyes, “We would win and the timeline would get a reset. So the obvious answer is Thanos.” He gave a meaningful look to Bruce who bared his teeth, shocking the others again.

“Explain the last time, that’s all say.”

Tony rubbed his shoulder against Bruce’s, “Ok, back to the problem at hand. How do we stop this?” And all five looked towards Strange.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, now more clues for the mystery... *smiles*
> 
> The chap was edited at 12:04 AM New York time - boy there was a lot of mistakes *wide eyes*


	8. Janus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> God of Change

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This will be the last chap I post of Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos until I complete [Of Luck and Lack of Forethought](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16742746/chapters/39276385), once the last chap of this is posted you'll understand why. ^^

“Why do you think I can help? If what you say is true then Thanos **_already_** took the Time Stone from me.” Which really grated and enraged Stephen.

“Because the last time we fought him was also the first time you got so directly involved,” Tony explained, remembering it, “not that we doubt you and the rest of Kamar-Taj fought Thanos when he came for the Eye, but we… in few words: we didn’t see it. We’ve had minimal contact with you before the last time, we would usually seek you when we faced some mystic business. You joined me and the Guardians in Titan, Thanos’ home planet. Quill kinda… uh… look the thing is, when we got there, you used the Eye,” Tony’s casual use of the name Kamar-Taj gave the Time Stone caused Stephen to raise an eyebrow, “and after doing something that honestly made you look possessed, you said that you saw the possibilities of the fight with Thanos, you saw fourteen-million-six-hundred-and-five ways that it could end.”

All of them were transfixed in Tony, even the original Avengers – and boy was that fun to explain to the rest – since this was the first they were hearing of it, the rest of the room could barely summon enough curiosity to ask who these “Guardians” and Quill were.

The billionaire took a deep breath, “I never explained to you what was happening with us,” he motioned to the other four, “and you were no idiot wasting time looking towards the past when half of the universe hanged in the balance. But… after our plan crashed, Thanos impaled me, he was about to finish me off and then you intervened and said that if Thanos spared my life, you would give him the Stone.”

“Stark…I’m doing something that I usually wouldn’t: trying to be sensitive. Considering everything, I wouldn’t sacrifice the Stone for your life.”

“You said just that before we got to Titan and I was counting on that. I wouldn’t sacrifice one sixth of the power Thanos needed to wipe out half the universe for a single person either, let alone one that I just met not even a day ago.”

Then something clicked for Stephen, whose frown softened as panic set in his features, “You said that I saw fourteen-million-six-hundred-and-five ways that it could end after we got to Titan but before we faced Thanos. What exactly did I see?”

“Fourteen- million-six-hundred-and-five paths… I asked you in how many did we win. The answer was **_one_**.”

Tony let the feeling of hopelessness wash a little before turning to the original Avengers who didn’t react anywhere near the same. Realization was dawning on them, Janet uttering the words, “We defeated Thanos time and time again but that last time Strange only ever saw **_one_** way that we could win? We won last time, we would even without the others’ intervention, just like we already did. So… then…” She looked at Tony, desperation in her pixie face even if with the small dot of hope shining in her eyes.

The inventor nodded slowly but cautiously, hating that he couldn’t reassure his friend, “I think Strange didn’t see a way for us to defeat Thanos, we could do that by ourselves. I think he saw a way for us to stop the reboot. What we need,” he turned to the sorcerer who was ashen faced, “is for you to do it again, finish what your past counterpart began. End this nightmare for good.”

Hank took in a shaky breath, “Once, you explained to us why there was an entire order guarding the Eye: the fragility of time. The sacred duty to safeguard reality itself and last time, Thanos didn’t have the Time Stone, we managed to get it back because we had the thought that it was Thanos reversing time,” he nodded to Bruce, “but everything was rebooted nonetheless and now this?” The scientist motioned for the entire room but it was clear he meant the entire situation, “The changes made were never so drastic, I mean… I was almost in my mid-twenties when Tony and Bruce were **_born_** , my research with the Pym Particles were never so subpar, I had yet to figure out a way back from the Quantum Realm close to my seventies! And I wouldn’t be idiotic enough to **_build_** a way to get subatomic when I didn’t have a way to come **_back_** and Jan was trapped for thirty years as a result.”

Thor, of all people, gave Hank a very serious look, “I believe you should be grateful for whatever the reason the Fates are cursing us. It allowed real love to prevail in your marriage.”

Janet hissed in distress, Tony and Bruce pursed their lips and dropped their gazes to the table and Hank looked back at Thor, his hands in fists but no expression in his face.

All five ignored the questioning looks sent their way. It was a low blow for Thor to comment about it right in front of Hope but it didn’t make it any less true: this time, Hank didn’t have the time or chance to strike Janet down. Instead, he lost her for his own tech and his own limitation in solving it which in turn, made him learn early on the hard lesson of valuing what you have **_before_** you lost it. Ultimately Hank got Janet back from the Quantum Realm and their marriage was saved by a **_very_** ironic twist and the fact that the feelings from the past lives were muted and detached.

They have always loved each other and that never changed before or after their marriage turned sour. But this was the first timeline that they were truly and completely weightless, no baggage to do their best to ignore trying to salvage their marriage.

Strange cleared his throat, trying to disperse the thick air and to get back to the matter at hand, “What exactly do you want me to do? If time was reversed as many times as you claim, reality itself is as fractured as it can possibly get which **_might_** explain the extreme changes. If that's the cause, merely using the Time Stone can permanently and literally implode our very existences.” He sent a pointed look towards the group.

Bruce hummed, “We won’t remember all of them. There were so many and sometimes with so little differences. We talked, and we think that at least two hundred times, perhaps close to three hundred but for certain no more than five hundred.”

Stephen gritted his teeth in the effor not to drop his jaw, "Oh…because that’s much better.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Physical abuse towards Janet (his wife) is a part of Hank Pym's character that no one (sometimes Hank himself) let the readers forget regardless how you think it was (a only once occurrence or not) -- I, personally, think it was a constant in their marriage: the infamous slap wasn't the only time Hank was physical with Janet, the time where she just asked his opinion about her clothes and he BLASTED the option he liked less comes to mind. Either way...
> 
> 616!Characters suffer the same aillment as Cap Stans do: bring up the slap like... when Hank is not even involved in any way. Ok, I'm exaggerating, still... from the brief Google search I made:  
> A girl that was busted to hell and back was discharged from the hospital and commented that, "She looked like one of Hank Pym's girlfriends."  
> [I have no idea who this is, if anyone knows... ^^](https://memestatic.fjcdn.com/pictures/Fuzzy+cultured+present+emu_a1a123_6683080.jpg)  
> And twice, Tony brought it up:  
> "Still slaping women around?" -- idk the issue ^^  
> And in Secret Empire #4, where Hank (a little... unhinged from Ultron) asked why there are no more dinner and movie nights and Tony answered that HANK was the cause. That dinner and movie nights were too awkward with no one knowing/wanting to pretend that everything and everyone was ok with what he did to Janet. Actually that's when Hank went off with how people keep bringing it up.
> 
> And it's not that I defend Hank on this (NEVER) but the matter of the fact is that 616 pretty much follows MCU on personal vs general. 
> 
> In MCU, we are left floundering whether we should or shouldn't care about nameless bystanders when the main character's personal life/friends are clearly taking priority.
> 
> So I feel that the fact that it was Janet van Dyne, the Wasp, a dearly beloved character weights on his actions. The writers constantly call attention to it when Peter Parker (the Supreme Cinnamon Roll) slapped MJ with his SUPER strenght while she was PREGNANT and Reed also slapped Sue... the difference is that people (writers/characters) don't keep bringing it up and keeping it fresh in our minds.
> 
> That when not mentioning the horrifying things Hank did in Ultimates (attacking Janet, she shrinkend and stinged him, he sprayed her with bug spray which hurt her pretty badly, she hid and he sent an army of ants to attack her, hospitalizing her), to be fair, everybody was a total or at least kinda of a-holes in Ultimates, still doesn't help it, thou.
> 
> So it got me thinking: the abuse was pretty much erased a lá Johannesburg and Obadiah Stane in MCU, even more extreme: actually it seemly never happened even in AM, why? Here's the answer *shrugs*

**Author's Note:**

> The Three Fates...


End file.
